The presentation of madness in ‘Hamlet’:
- Hamlet’s acting mad- need to act in a court riddled with subterfuge
(add in ‘mad in craft’- motif of acting)
- Presents female madness as a means of gaining agency/power
through Ophelia, subserviency vs taking control- Hamlet bursts into
her boudoir
- Short-lived nature of agency in female madness, differing responses
to male and female madness, both madness and subsequent suicide
occurs off-stage
- In ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s madness as a necessary
act, conflating it with the motif of performance to present it as
deceptive in nature, mirroring the deception prevalent in the courts
of both Hamlet’s Denmark and Shakespeare’s England.
- This deception is what merits Rob Worrall’s calling of ‘Hamlet’ a
“quester’s tragedy”, with the 'chicanery within life beyond childhood
innocence' giving way to Hamlet's 'search for truth'
- In fact, the idea that 'truth' is not easily found seems to be a focal
point of the play, it is a motif that Hamlet attempts, somewhat
unsuccessfully, to grapple with.
- The prince questions how 'one may smile, and smile, and be a
villain'. The dichotomous doubling of verb 'smile' and noun 'villain'
exemplifies the prevalence of deceit within the court of Denmark,
spurred on by characters such as Claudius
- Perhaps the chasm between appearance and reality in 'rotten'
Denmark acts as an allegorical double for the court of Elizabeth,
which too reflected a state infected with espionage and rebellious
plotting by ambitious men like Essex.
- Shakespeare, then, puts forward the idea that in a court riddled with
deception, one must use subterfuge/acting to achieve their goals, as
Hamlet adopts a false 'madness' of his own, in order to pursue the
truth of the old king's murder- Gillian Woods points out that 'despite
his petulant outburst against seeming, he cannot escape the human
impulse to perform'
- Woods’ outlining of the performative nature of Hamlet’s madness is
supported by the motif of acting that Shakespeare attributes said
madness with. The fact that Hamlet ‘put[s] on an antic disposition’
conflates this ‘disposition’ with the idea of costuming, a notion that
critics have attested to in calling Hamlet’s apparent insanity ‘a cloak
of madness’ which serves as a mechanism for him to explore the
validity of the ghost’s claims of murder. This is furthered by
- Hamlet’s acting mad- need to act in a court riddled with subterfuge
(add in ‘mad in craft’- motif of acting)
- Presents female madness as a means of gaining agency/power
through Ophelia, subserviency vs taking control- Hamlet bursts into
her boudoir
- Short-lived nature of agency in female madness, differing responses
to male and female madness, both madness and subsequent suicide
occurs off-stage
- In ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s madness as a necessary
act, conflating it with the motif of performance to present it as
deceptive in nature, mirroring the deception prevalent in the courts
of both Hamlet’s Denmark and Shakespeare’s England.
- This deception is what merits Rob Worrall’s calling of ‘Hamlet’ a
“quester’s tragedy”, with the 'chicanery within life beyond childhood
innocence' giving way to Hamlet's 'search for truth'
- In fact, the idea that 'truth' is not easily found seems to be a focal
point of the play, it is a motif that Hamlet attempts, somewhat
unsuccessfully, to grapple with.
- The prince questions how 'one may smile, and smile, and be a
villain'. The dichotomous doubling of verb 'smile' and noun 'villain'
exemplifies the prevalence of deceit within the court of Denmark,
spurred on by characters such as Claudius
- Perhaps the chasm between appearance and reality in 'rotten'
Denmark acts as an allegorical double for the court of Elizabeth,
which too reflected a state infected with espionage and rebellious
plotting by ambitious men like Essex.
- Shakespeare, then, puts forward the idea that in a court riddled with
deception, one must use subterfuge/acting to achieve their goals, as
Hamlet adopts a false 'madness' of his own, in order to pursue the
truth of the old king's murder- Gillian Woods points out that 'despite
his petulant outburst against seeming, he cannot escape the human
impulse to perform'
- Woods’ outlining of the performative nature of Hamlet’s madness is
supported by the motif of acting that Shakespeare attributes said
madness with. The fact that Hamlet ‘put[s] on an antic disposition’
conflates this ‘disposition’ with the idea of costuming, a notion that
critics have attested to in calling Hamlet’s apparent insanity ‘a cloak
of madness’ which serves as a mechanism for him to explore the
validity of the ghost’s claims of murder. This is furthered by
